Business questions become sideshow to Clive Palmer's tilt for PM

Clive Palmer is starting a new political party and hopes to have candidates in all seats for the coming federal election but in the past week he's faced questions about his own finances rather than his aim to become Prime Minister.

But the business success that Clive Palmer boasts as his main qualification for political leadership is coming under serious scrutiny.

There are major questions about his mining ventures in Western Australia and Queensland and his ailing luxury resort on the Sunshine Coast.

Peter McCutcheon reports.

PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: Most politicians would avoid a place like this. Sideshow Alley is full of too many risks, especially for a minor party demanding to be taken seriously. But Clive Palmer is attempting to portray himself as an anti-politician - a successful businessman, risk-taker and patriot.

Why go to all this effort to start up your own political party?

CLIVE PALMER, PALMER UNITED PARTY: Because I'm an Australian and my family live there. I love this country.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: 7.30 followed Clive Palmer while campaigning at the Nambour Show as part of his attempt to win the Queensland Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax. But behind the political circus is a businessman facing real scrutiny about his financial acumen.

An expected mining royalty bonanza from the west is being held up in a legal dispute, affecting Clive Palmer's Eastern Seaboard investments in a North Queensland nickel refinery and a resort on the Sunshine Coast.

What's the feeling in the business community here about how the resort's being run?

NOEL MOONEY, COOLUM BUSINESS AND TOURISM: Ah, very dismayed. Um, I suppose you'd say, like, disappointed I think in a lot of ways.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: A critical part of the Palmer financial empire is the flow of royalties from an iron ore development in Western Australia, but this is now the subject of a legal battle with the Chinese company Citic Pacific Mining and it was revealed last week that Mr Palmer warned Citic a thousand jobs could be lost if his company didn't receive an urgent injection of $200 million.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN, QLD PREMIER (Last week): Are the jobs in Townsville secure? Yes or no, Mr Palmer. He needs to make a clear statement.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Most of these thousand jobs would be at the Ubulu nickel refinery near Townsville, and today Clive Palmer took a break from political campaigning to reassure the refinery staff. Mr Palmer wouldn't let 7.30 cameras into today's meeting, but his company later supplied this footage:

CLIVE PALMER (Qld Nickel footage): It's very, very hard to be working in a large plant. We've gotta keep a lot of things confidential and of course we're trying to get solutions that will guarantee everybody's job. So, it's a question of us having faith in you, which we have, and you guys having faith in us.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: He told his staff how he used an unspecified amount of his own money to keep the business afloat and foreshadowed new initiatives to create 500 new jobs.

CLIVE PALMER (Qld Nickel footage): I'd like to thank all the workers for staying committed to Queensland Nickel. You are the reason that I used my personal funds to invest in this great business to keep it secure.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Also under scrutiny is the luxury Coolum Resort which Mr Palmer purchased from Hyatt two years ago, promising a multimillion-dollar upgrade to make it one of the world's premier tourist destinations, and the locals are still waiting.

NOEL MOONEY: Yeah, a lot of people have lost their jobs, a lot of people who were there from the beginning when it first opened. Some people were there 18 years and they lost their jobs.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Noel Mooney is the president of Coolum Business and Tourism. He says the controversial decision to drop the Hyatt name and rebadge the resort in the name of its owner has backfired and consequently business in town is suffering.

NOEL MOONEY: Before when it was the Hyatt, before it became Palmer Coolum Resort, like, there was quite a fair few people that used to come out of the resort to here. Now - like, now we don't see anyone.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Why's that?

NOEL MOONEY: 'Cause I don't think there's anyone there.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: It's an unwanted but unavoidable distraction for a man who so eagerly mixes business with politics. Resort staff were at hand to help with the Palmer United marquee at the Nambour Show, serving upmarket hors d'oeuvres rather than the traditional Dagwood dogs. And resort manager and Palmer employee Bill Shock is the party's candidate for the neighbouring seat of Longman.

Does the fact that he's your boss, did that influence your decision to stand for the party?

BILL SCHOCH, PALMER UNITED CANDIDATE: No, not at all. I mean, being around Clive, one gets opportunities. But if Clive said, "Let's go to the Moon in three weeks' time," a lot of us'd say, "Let's go."

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Apart from employees, the Palmer United Party has enlisted a number of former sporting stars to stand for Parliament, including former rugby league prop Glenn Lazarus, known in his playing days as "the brick with eyes". The former State of Origin player says he likes the common sense policies of the party, its call to reduce lobbyists and scrap the carbon tax, but like Bill Schoch, he was mainly drawn by the personality of the leader.

Why did you say yes to Clive?

GLENN LAZARUS, PALMER UNITED SENATE CANDIDATE: Well, he's a very persuasive man when it comes to getting what he wants. But ...

PETER MCCUTCHEON: How did he persuade you?

GLENN LAZARUS: Well, I tell ya - I'll ya why, because when I came away from the first meeting with him, I had no doubt that he was very genuine in his concerns about the country and knowing that he was fair dinkum about it all.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The Clive Palmer sideshow can't be dismissed easily, with minor parties expected to pick up the last Senate seat in Queensland. And the Labor candidate for the seat Clive Palmer himself is contesting, Elaine Hughes, says he's in the contest.

ELAINE HUGHES: I think it's gonna be - I think a lot of people have got a chance.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: But the closer Clive Palmer gets the Parliament, the more intense the scrutiny of the man, his finances and his party.It's easy to work out what some political parties stand for - the Greens, the Shooters Party, Family First - but Palmer's United Party: what particularly does it stand for?

CLIVE PALMER: Well the ANZACs went overseas a long time ago. They didn't go as members of the ALP, they didn't go over as members of the Liberal Party, they went as Australians. And we believe we've gotta unite the country to do what's best for Australia.